Thursday, January 7, 2016

Preserve Pictures for Posterity

The holidays were a time for taking pictures. It's a good idea to preserve them.

Before cell phones, people used cameras to take pictures. They needed film, then they needed to get the pictures developed, and prints made. It took time.

Then along came cell phones and the ability to take pictures any time, any place, and to share them instantly with family friends all over the world. This instant viewing of photos is wonderful, but what happens down the line?

If photos are left in the phone or online, will people have access to them? Technology changes at almost the speed of light, and some photos may get "left behind." The simple solution? Print out your pictures. Not all, but the ones you want to look at again years from now, and want other to see, maybe even years after you are no longer walking this earth.

It doesn't take long or cost much to preserve a bit of your photographic history. So be sure to do it every now and then for yourself and for future generations.

2 comments:

  1. The issue of printing is that color prints degrade, too. This is a really thorny problem. Black and white is more stable, and some solutions are more archival than others.

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  2. True. I have family pictures that are black & white that are probably 10o+ years old.

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